Monday of the first week in Ordinary Time

Today the Word of God shows us how God begins his work quietly, in the middle of ordinary days. As the Church enters Ordinary Time, between Christmas and Lent, we learn how to live when nothing special seems to be happening, yet God is close.

Dear sisters in Christ, yesterday we stood with Jesus at the Jordan. He stepped into the water with sinners and was named as God’s beloved Son. Today’s Gospel from Mark follows straight after. Jesus leaves the river and walks into Galilee. From that moment, he begins his work.

His first words are simple. “The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.” He is not marking a date on a calendar. He is saying that this moment matters. God is acting now. God’s life and our daily life are no longer separate.

Jesus speaks while people are working. Fishermen are casting and mending nets. Their hands are busy. Their lives are already full. Jesus does not wait for them to prepare. He calls them where they are. They leave their nets and follow. They do not know where this will lead. They take a step because they trust the voice that calls them.

The nets are not bad. They feed families. They give shape to life. But even good things can hold us too tightly. When Jesus says “repent,” he is not asking them to dwell on the past. He is asking them to turn, to face a new direction. To believe is not only to accept ideas, but to trust enough to follow.

As a new school year begins tomorrow, this Gospel comes close to us. Schedules return. Lessons begin. Work continues. It is in this steady rhythm of teaching, study, prayer, and care that the Lord walks past and calls.

The first reading from the First Book of Samuel shows us the same way of God working. Hannah has no child, and her pain is deep. In her world, this is a heavy burden. What stands out is not her sadness, but her faithfulness. She keeps coming back to prayer. She stays before God with what she lacks. Her name means grace, and she learns that grace slowly.

Hannah speaks clearly to religious life. She shows us how to live when fruit is not yet seen, when prayer feels the same day after day. She does not give up. From her staying, God brings life. Samuel, whose name means “God hears,” is born. God listens before anything changes.

The psalm gives words to this experience. “You have loosened my bonds.” This is the prayer of someone who has been held through struggle. Gratitude grows over time. Faithfulness costs something, yet it loosens bonds and opens the way to life.

Just so, I imagine, in Dominican community life. The call is clear, but it is lived day by day. Nets are put down again and again. Ordinary Time is where faithfulness is shaped, in simple prayer, shared work, and patience with one another. Our life becomes a long practice of listening. As St Dominic taught, lectio is where the Word is tended day by day until it bears fruit.

If we pause with the Gospel, we might picture the nets, the water, the moment before the fishermen move. Notice what stirs within you there. God often speaks through small movements of the heart.

As we begin this new stretch of Ordinary Time, and as work and study begin again tomorrow, the Word invites us to walk forward with Christ into ordinary days, trusting that God is already at work.

We might carry three questions into prayer this morning:

• Where am I being asked to stay faithful, even when I see little change?
• What am I holding onto that I may need to place down?
• How is God asking our community to listen more carefully and respond more generously now?

Let us pray to Mary, who received the Word in silence and let it take flesh in her life. May she walk with us as we learn to listen and to follow. Amen.